Conquering the Clutter.
|Isn’t it strange how in one moment your surroundings can go from livable to claustrophobic in the blink of an eye? All at once the room you’re in has too much clutter on the shelves and tables, and the floor space is covered by too many pieces of furniture. Do you start to itch, and crave an industrial-sized dumpster to chuck everything into? No? Just a mild hankering for more space, more room to maneuver? Well, this week we’ll be sharing our own clutterbug stories, and we can all compare notes on where we stand on the hoarder scale.
I wonder what the gene is called, you know, the one that makes humans nest and drag things home because they’re pretty or remind us of some forgotten memory. It has to be a gene, ’cause everyone does it to some degree or other, just glance into neighbourhood garages as you go by – chockablock full of crap, right? We all start projects that need stuff to complete, we bring home items from our travels, we’re all given odd gifts, oh, and we like to cart our past around with us. So, when does it all tip the scale into clutter-madness? I’d say it’s when I can’t find what I’m looking for and give up, or create a huge mess in the hopeful search.
I like to tackle a decluttering project one drawer at a time – open it, sigh, take everything out, sorting bins at the ready, clean empty drawer, repopulate it with less items and smile at a full trash or donation-bin. This weekend I dealt with the bathroom ’cause it was time to toss some outdated beauty products. I know everyone loves a good before photo, but because I like y’all I’m not foisting my dirty drawers onto your lovely retinas! It felt great to toss unused objects away, and I’m talking years old stuff, the ones it would be sketchy to use on my face or body, who knows what old chemicals do to dermis layers…
Towards the end I was a multitasking decluttering wench, what with tossing things, applying a facial mask, a little teeth whitening and 15 minutes of meditation. At the end of the day my face smelled nice, my drawers were clean and organized, and my mind was semi-zen-like – who could ask for more than that? In your face unnamed gene #2588837.